It is well known to provide bonus awards or games or other types of secondary awards or games as an additional component to a casino game, such as a video slot machine. Typically, such bonus awards are awarded to the player when a special symbol appears, for example, on the reels of the video slot machine.
In some games, once the special symbol appears, the player may be automatically awarded a bonus, such as a set amount of credits or a multiplier.
Alternatively, once the special symbol appears, the player may be allowed to play a bonus game. The bonus game takes the player completely out of the main game, after which the player can play the video slot game again. The end result of the bonus game may be a bonus award.
However, neither of these types of bonus awards or games build any type of excitement or anticipation for the player during the main game.
The present invention is aimed at one or more of the problems identified above.